1). Field of the Invention
Embodiments of this invention relate to a universal advertising model that provides greater flexibility in the creation, tracking, and compensation of advertisements.
2). Discussion of Related Art
Online advertising has become ubiquitous in internet and computer network environments. Consumers can access a myriad of marketing and promotional content through the use of their home computers and web browsers.
Much of the advertising experienced by consumers come in the form of pop up ads or banner ads. However, these ads are not personalized to a specific client with specific interests nor are they specialized for specific niche markets.
Product companies, or their authorized agents, pay for advertisements to be created, often before knowing whether the advertising is successful or not. The advertising is produced in house or on an outsourced contract basis. Product companies tend to work with a handful of advertising agencies to work hand-in-hand to shape advertisements.
These advertisements are often based on preconceived markets with a limited amount of niche differentiation. The product company maintains ultimate control over each advertisement including branding considerations. When a local retailer carries a product, it creates advertisements for those products but the product company still maintains ultimate control over the advertisements.
Advertisements are distributed by the product company on a paid basis where the product company pays fees to have its advertisements placed. The advertisements are often associated with mainstream, well understood content rather than niche markets that the product company does not know about.
As a result, product companies are limited in their ability to sell to multiple niche markets unless those niches are large enough to be noticeable and to justify the advertising money.